And it’s time for the 504th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, and we’re going to be discussing Arizona state senator Kelli Ward, a former osteopath who first ran for office in 2012, got to run unopposed in 2014, and recently resigned to focus on her atttempt to unseat U.S. Senator John McCain in the GOP Primary for his seat on the U.S. Senate. And man, it seems like every person who steps to John McCain in a GOP Primary comes with some serious flaws, going back to his 2010 race when he was challenged by two xenophobic nut-jobs, in the form of a now convicted child-molester and militia leader Chris Simcox, and then a still pretty damned xenophobic Newsmax reporter and infomercial huckster, J.D. Hayworth.
Is Kelli Ward the latest kook to take a crack at the ol’ Maverick that’s going to be little more than a tune-up for him prior to the general election?
It would seem so. Because while people like Hayworth and Simcox tried taking shots at John McCain from his right, when Kelli Ward does it, she comes off as a bit less credible. For starters, Ward was running a osteopathic clinic in Lake Havasu City back in 2009, and not particularly well from a financial standpoint. She then sold her practice to a company named NorthCountry, her clinic, employees and all, and her buyout from them was paid for with… half a million dollars in Obama Stimulus Funds that came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In 2012, she even gave an interview to an osteopathic magazine to discuss the matter.
But luckily for Sen. McCain, he doesn’t have to attack Ward on taking taxpayer-funded money in her career, and fire away at her from a left or right flank… just the SANE flank. For starters, Kelli Ward hosted a town hall meeting with her constituents to discuss the threat of… CHEMTRAILS. You know, the idea that all those streams coming out from planes are actually just a sinister plot from someone, for some reason, looking to poison the masses, as if there was no difference between a 747 passenger jet and a crop duster. (If you’re not familiar with that paranoid conspiracy theory, we’ll reference Rationwiki for a moment so you can start laughing at her, properly.)
Now, when this news broke, Kelli Ward tried to portray her town hall meeting as having been to soothe the fears of her actual constituents, who voiced concerns towards her about the chemtrail phenomenon. There’s just one problem with her trying to brush off the McCain campaign calling her “Chemtrail Kelli”, as if she’s some kind of a kook. Ward has the nasty habit of supporting OTHER conspiracies, and appearing on the radio talk shows of every right-wing paranoid conspiracy theorist lunatic who will host her, apparently. Back in 2013, she co-sponsored Arizona’s attempts to reject the United Nations’ Agenda 21 Treaty, and spoke on the floor of the Arizona legislature about how she believes it’s not about better environmental standards, but tricking rural Americans into moving back into metropolitan centers and cities:
“I’d go so far to say that what we’re doing with health care relates to Agenda 21 as well, because we’d like to see those rural hospitals close and fold under the pressure of not taking money from the federal government to hold them up. Because when those things close, that does push people toward more centralized living in high-rise apartments [and] not in the rural areas, which tend to be freer thinkers and freer livers.”
We’re still just warming up, though. Mother Jones Magazine ran an article reporting about how Ward has appeared on the radio show of a local Arizona conspiracy nut named Luca Zanna, where Ward chatted about mysterious helicopters that had been spotted in Arizona, finding agreement how Common Core standards were turning children into “slaves”, as well as the prospect of martial law, or the possibility of a foreign power sending troops to subdue American citizens:
”I can tell you I have an apartment down here in Phoenix that I stay in during the session, and I hear helicopters all the time that I hear outside my window. Now I don’t know if they’re medical helicopters, I don’t know if they’re searching for bad guys on the ground because there’s some kind of shooting or some kind of activity.“
Mother Jones was also good enough to note how Kelli Ward made a trip up to the Cliven Bundy Ranch to hang out with him and the Oathkeepers in 2014, and she described the armed standoff where domestic terrorists, with women and children among their number as human shields, had assault rifles pointed at federal agents from the Bureau of Land Management:
”I think the media would like to portray that event as something completely different than what it was, but I can tell you it was a very family-friendly event.”
Just… yikes. After Cliven Bundy decided to “tell us all about the negro”, Ward tried downplaying her visit to see the would-be hero turned racist domestic terrorist, but noting Bundy had a “1st Amendment right” to his remarks. (Keep that in mind for a moment…)
Ward actually had an interview in 2014 with self-described conspiracy theorist and fellow Bundy supporter Pete Santilli, who called John McCain “a domestic enemy”, and brought up both Chemtrails and 9/11 Trutherism during their talk.
But back to Kelli Ward and her respect for the 1st Amendment… Remember when Donald Sterling still owned the Los Angeles Clippers, and after decades of racist remarks and lawsuits over racial discrimination against Sterling, he was caught on tape making racist remarks by his girlfriend about the company she was keeping with African Americans being something he didn’t approve of? The NBA voted to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, and most people felt it was justified because the league didn’t need anyone that racist as part of their day-to-day operations. Well, Kelli Ward, for whatever reason, came running to Donald Sterling’s defense, saying that forcing him to lose his team in such a manner created a “slippery slope”, and promised the public that she would “fight for free speech”.
You hear that racists? KELLI WARD HAS YOUR BACK.
And that’s clearly the case, considering two months ago, Kelli Ward received an endorsement from Nohl Rosen. If that name doesn’t ring a bell with you, you may have heard over the course of the past year about a group of racist protesters who are pro-police, taunting Black Lives Matter protesters with Confederate flags or the time he participated an armed protest with assault rifles of a Phoenix mosque (where they talked about the possibility of having a “Draw Muhammed” contest).
While most assumed Ward would distance herself from a bigoted crank like Rosen… she re-Tweeted his post. Then you do a little bit of checking and find out… Ward has spoken at some of Rosen’s “Back the Badge” rallies that defend police violence (especially the times against minorities)
And that sort of mentality jibes with Mother Jones’ other reporting, that when asked about her position on birthright citizenship at a local GOP gathering in September 2014, she responded by making a thumbs-down gesture and blowing a raspberry, stating that it had been “misinterpreted for years” and that immigrants shouldn’t be able to stay just because they “create a child.” (Which isn’t how birthright citizenship works.)
In a radio interview, she has fear-mongered about immigrants in the worst possible ways, warning that “polio-like illnesses” are spreading:
”Throughout the country as the federal government shipped all of these illegal immigrants all across the country without properly treating them for health and wellness, and they’re exposing our kids, our families, to things that we should never have to be exposed to.“
(Remember, now, we’re talking about a woman with medical training…)
Establishing that Ward is off her rocker seems like an open and shut at this point, but we’ll note she also was a co-sponsor of extremist Arizona Republicans attempts to make gold and silver legal tender as one of her first priorities as a legislator, as well as voted for both an attempt to nullify federal firearm laws, and voted for Arizona’s attempt at passing a “religious freedom” law to prevent same sex marriage back in 2013.
So to sum up, she frequents the company of bigots, is supported by leaders of hate rallies, says unfounded things about immigrants, tries making conspiracy theories into actual policy, and only seems to mention the importance of the First Amendment when someone says something really racist. Perhaps then, it should come as little surprise that she has spoken at Trump events and praised Cheeto Jesus himself, Donald Trump.
And she would like to be a U.S. Senator now… She is sure accomplishing one thing… she’s rallying people behind John McCain’s attempt at winning a sixth term in office. Hopefully voters don’t go into the general election thinking that she and Rep. House Ann Kirkpatrick are the same person.
One Year Ago, July 3rd, 2015: Dale Mensing (CA)